Veterans' Honor

A military aircraft at the Kissimmee Municipal airport to honor Osceola's veterans is surely fitting.

City commissioners were right last week to agree to explore the idea.

Osceola has no major monument to its veterans and a restored war bird is a fitting tribute. The idea has been kicked around for years. It is time to do it.

Yes, critics complain that the plane would need continual maintenance, that it would attract vandals, or that someone injured on it or near it could spark an expensive lawsuit.

Yes, there is some basis for that concern.

Several years ago, Orlando International Airport acquired the broad-winged B-52 to honor the site's history as a former U.S. Air Force base. Within the first days of its arrival, there were half a dozen break-ins. Some would-be fliers had to be chased off precarious perches on the plane's canopy and sprawling wings.

But the airport responded by putting a fence around the plane and locking the gate at night. That is easy enough.

A similar monument would do well here, with similar precautions.

Veterans from many wars were born in Osceola County. This area boasts several military pilots of significance.

Capt. W.R. Lawson, an Osceola native killed in 1923, was labeled the ''greatest bomber officer in the service'' by Brig. Gen. William Mitchell, assistant chief of what was then known as the Army Air Service.

Lt. Col. Clarence Thacker flew a B-17 named the KISSY-ME-KOWBOY, which on Aug. 6, 1942, was involved in the first Allied daylight bombing of Nazi- occupied Europe. He flew another 57 missions in the bomber.

Lt. Cmdr. Charles Carroll shot down five Japanese aircraft at the battle of Midway and was Kissimmee's ace pilot during the war. His face made the cover of Life magazine.

Honoring these contributions is worth doing and it has been too long in coming.